Thursday, September 22, 2011

Meg Whitman Officially Named As CEO/President Of HP

The change follows some rather odd moves by HP who has recently abandon their webOS hardware division after paying $1.2 billion acquiring Palm in 2010, announced it might be shopping its Personal Systems Group (PSG) division, later recanting the announcement stating the company may spin-off the PSG group.

Rumors had swirled in recent days that HP's board was about to part ways with Leo Apotheker, a former CEO of business software vendor SAP. Under his watch, HP's stock has fallen nearly 47 percent.

HP hired Apotheker last November after pinning its hopes on WebOS as a replacement system for the company's PCs and smartphones. WebOS' future culminated in the debut of the TouchPad earlier this year. However the tablet failed to grab users' attention and gain ay real traction in the market. As a result, the company began selling the tablets in a fire sale just months after they were unveiled.

Whitman has been on HP's board since January and while many know her by her track record of leading eBay to become auction powerhouse it is today she has never worked at a computer-maker before now does she have a proven track record in the tech sector.

She must now figure out how to right the ship and decide what to do with the company's controversial plans to kill webOS devices and spin off the PC unit. For webOS fans, Ms. Whitman's arrival could lead to a webOS revival, though that seems to be very unlikely.

Update:So it looks like plans for the spin off and continued exile of WebOS are still in place. During the HP conference call today regarding the company's decision to name Meg Whitman as CEO HP went into details about its plans over the next few months, and how it sees things going moving forward.

Whitman said during the call that HP and the board will decide on the spin off of the personal systems group before the end of the calendar year. Whitman also said that she supports the decision made in August to discontinue WebOS hardware and spin off PSG, and she believes that decisions previously made were "right." Whitman also said that the decision on PSG is "not like fine wine, will not get better with age" and it must be made as fast as possible.